Team Stats

Shots

Ground Balls

Saves

Clears

Turnovers

Draw Controls

Free Position Shots

MEDFORD, Mass. – The 20th-ranked Colby College women's lacrosse team had early 3-0 and 5-1 leads before holding on for a 10-9 win over Tufts University at Bello Field on Saturday.

The Mules needed the NESCAC win and came up big in moving to 2-2 overall and 1-2 in the conference. Colby will play 10th-ranked Salisbury University at Sparks, Md., on Tuesday at 2 p.m. The Mules close out the spring break road trip at Connecticut College next Saturday at noon.

Caroline Nowak's tally off a free-position shot pulled the Jumbos to within a goal with 2:24 left in the second half, but Colby won the ensuing draw control and was able to run out the clock.

Colby burst out to a 3-0 lead in the first 7:10 of action on goals by Kendall Smith (from Sasha Fritts), Lexie Perticone (from Smith), and Kelsey Bowen. Dakota Adamec narrowed the Mules lead to 3-1 with the first of her two goals of the afternoon, but Smith's second tally of the day from Perticone moved the advantage back to three goals 3:54 later.

Grace Crowell increased the Colby lead to 5-1 off a free-position shot, before Megan Toner answered for the Jumbos off an assist from Erin Jacob. Smith's third tally of the first half from an assist by Maddie Hatch (pictured) regained the Mules' four-goal advantage and Hatch deposited a free-position shot with 46 seconds left in the half to give Colby a 7-2 lead. Senior Kate Makin answered for the Jumbos with just 13 seconds left in the first half.

Colby opened the second half scoring on Smith's fourth goal of the day just 11 seconds into the half. Mackin sandwiched two goals around a Perticone marker from Hatch for a 9-5 Colby advantage. Colby moved out to a 10-5 lead on Hatch's second goal of the day from Emilie Klein with 14:16 remaining.

The Tufts defense held the Mules scoreless the rest of the way as the Jumbos' offense rallied. A pair of goals just 22 seconds apart by Taylor Meeks shrunk the deficit to 10-7, before a free-position goal by Adamec narrowed the gap to 10-8 with just over five minutes left in regulation.

The Mules' Smith led all scorers with four goals and an assist. Hatch had a pair of goals and a pair of assists, and Perticone tallied two goals and an assist for the Mules.

Tufts had the advantage in shots by a 22-18 margin, and also won 12 of the 21 draw controls in the contest. Sam Burch started for the first time this season for the Mules and stopped seven shots, while Audrey Evers made five saves for the Jumbos.

Hatch had a team-high four draw controls, while Gemma Bready had two caused turnovers and two ground balls for Colby. Smith also caused two turnovers, Georgia Lubrano had three ground balls and one caused turnover, and Klein had two draw controls.